I am a born-again Christian, one who made a mistake with a very visible consequence. Even though I grew up knowing abortion was wrong, I also knew that it could make things easier for me —no one would know what I had done, and I could get on with my life. I had seen women who admitted to having abortions being forgiven, while women who kept their babies seemed harder to forgive. But the more I thought about abortion, the more I knew I couldn’t go through with it. In my view, abortion is taking a life. And I couldn’t do that. …

I would be allowed to finish the year with my classmates, but I couldn’t be in any leadership positions in school clubs, and I still couldn’t walk at graduation.

On top of all of this, my principal called an assembly of the entire high school, and invited school families, to tell everyone what had happened. He told me I didn’t need to be there, but I volunteered. I was a senior and a campus leader, so I felt as if I should tell them myself.

In front of the whole school, I got up and started to read a statement I wrote explaining that I had broken the rules, that I was repentant and that I asked for forgiveness. But I couldn’t get through it. My dad had to read some of it while I composed myself. It was one of the hardest things I ever did, and I’m so sorry, not for myself but for any girl in that audience who will get pregnant in the future and may consider abortion because of what I had to go through.

Several things bother me about this story, but maybe the most important one: She never tells us if the baby’s father is still in her life.